The Book Haul to End All Book Hauls (Until the Next Book Haul) 

This is the best kind of duel, even if I am bound to lose!

Why, thank you! Ah, On Beauty Rings a bell. If I like The Fraud, I may very well go back and try them.

Thank you, Summer! 😋

Thank you, Debs! I feel like I should be putting myself on a book-buying ban, although I think it would only cause me to buy even more books! 😆

Intoxicating is just the right word! I've been loving them so far.

Oooh, happy birthday! 😊

I can't remember reading Dickens at all at school (with the exception of an abridged version of Oliver Twist in the earlier years of primary school). I think I'm thankful in a way, as there seem to be quite a few who have had books like A Tale of Two Cities ruined by bad teaching. Although the bad teaching didn't put me off some of the books I read at school - but then I did tend to ignore what the teacher was saying about them and just read the book over and over!

Oh dear! I'm rather wary of joining book clubs for the fear that I'd do something like that! That's good to hear about Zadie Smith. I'm looking forward to giving her fiction a go.

That's very encouraging to hear! I haven't read anything by Zadie Smith yet, but the premise (and some of your comments about it in your reading updates) have left me rather intrigued...

@@aaronfacer I'm really enjoying it. I think reviews in publications have been mostly very good, but I haven't heard a lot of people talking here about it. I'll be interested to hear what my book group has to say about it. I'll get back to you on that. I'll review it fully after my group meets.

Thank you!

Yeah, it's a tricky one. But I'm hoping to understand it a little better eventually!